Medical Garments and their Use
Medical garments with features for improving patient privacy during a medical examination or treatment are provided. Garments of the invention also enable ease of access by a treatment provider.
The invention is related to and claims priority from the provisional application No. 61/303,134 filed on Feb. 10, 2011.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe invention is related to garments utilized in a medical and/or clinical setting for patient examination.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONExamination of individuals in a clinical or medical setting most often requires the individual being examined to change into a clinical gown so as to allow the medical practitioner easy access to patient anatomy for examination. Typically, the clinical gown is made of a paper like fabric with no secure means for holding it close. The clinical gown is made with the primary objective of facilitating examination of the individual anatomy by a medical professional. Although the ease of use by the medical professional is an important objective in the design of clinical gowns generally, the comfort of the individual patient has been largely unaddressed by the clinical gowns available on the market today. The present invention addresses this unmet need and provides novel designs for clinical gowns that offer ease of use features for the medical professional coupled with significant improvements than ensure patient comfort while undergoing medical examination.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention provides gowns for medical use with design features that allow easy access for medical professionals such as doctors and nurses to examine an individual and also help with protecting the individual's privacy with appropriate coverage. Various aspects of the invention enable superior coverage without the need for multiple “ties”, “buttons”, “snaps” or “velcro closures”. The main objective of the invention is to minimize the “openness” of the gowns and the number of “ties” that need to be secured and that are difficult to access, while maintaining a high degree of accessibility for the medical practitioner.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:
The features and advantages of the invention are described below in reference to the preferred embodiments which have been set forth in detail in the examples in conjunction with the accompanying drawings shown in
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The foregoing descriptions and drawings detail specific elements which may be employed to practice the present invention. One of skill in the art will readily know and appreciate how to devise alternate reliable variations at arriving at the same improvements by modifications to the components of the gowns covered in the disclosure of the present invention using ordinary skill However, the foregoing description should not be construed as limiting the overall scope of the present invention, but are to be considered as illustrative thereof.
Claims
1. A gown comprising:
- at least two overlapping panels of material attached to a common third panel wherein each of the two overlapping panels is attached to a separate side edge of the third panel;
- a fourth panel forming a top yoke section, wherein the two overlapping panels are attached to the fourth panel along a common edge of the fourth panel;
- the fourth panel further comprising two separate edges whereby the two separate edges are parallel to the common edge attached to the two overlapping panels;
- said third panel consisting of a tie attached to a point mid-length along a length dimension of the third panel.
2. The gown of claim 1 further comprising at least one closing means on each of the two separate edges whereby the fourth panel is secured to the third panel by the closing means binds the separate edges to the third panel.
3. The gown of claim 1, wherein one of the at least two overlapping panels overlaps at least a portion of the other of said at least two overlapping panels.
4. A gown of claim 1, wherein said at least two overlapping panels, the third panel and the fourth panel are made from a water-absorbent material.
5. The gown of claim 1, wherein the tie extends out from each of the side edges of the third panel such that the tie can be folded around the two overlapping panels to form a belt around the gown.
6. The gown of claim 2 wherein the closing means is selected from a group consisting of buttons, ties, snap-ons, or Velcro closures.
7. The gown of claim 1, wherein said at least two over lapping panels, the third panel and the fourth panel are made from a cotton fabric.
8. The gown of claim 1, wherein said at least two over lapping panels, the third panel and the fourth panel are made from a synthetic material.
9. The gown of claim 1, wherein said at least two over lapping panels, the third panel and the fourth panel are made from a disposable material.
10. A medical garment comprising: a first front panel with two overlapping sections secured together along a bottom edge of said first front panel; a second front panel attached to one side edge of the back panel and at least partially attached to the bottom edge of said first front panel; a third front panel attached to a second side edge of the back panel and at least partially attached to the bottom edge of the first front panel so as to overlap the second front panel. a means to secure corners of opposing edges of the second and third front panels to each other.
- a back panel having two opposed side edges, a top edge and a bottom edge perpendicular to said opposite side edges'
11. The medical garment of claim 10, wherein the first front panel is secured along two sections of a top edge to the top edge of the back panel so as to form two sleeves or arm openings.
12. The medical garment of claim 11, wherein the first front panel, the back panel, the second and third front panels are made of a material selected disposable synthetic fibers, paper or fabric.
13. The medical garment of claim 12, wherein the material is cotton.
14. The medical garment of claim 13, wherein the material is paper.
15. The medical garment of claim 10, further comprising a tie secured to an internal surface at a point mid-length along the two side edges of the back panel.
16. The medical garment of claim 15, wherein the tie extends out of the edges wherein the back panel is secured to the second and third front panels so as to form a belt for tying around the medical garment when in use.
17. The medical garment of claim 15, wherein the first front panel comprises double layers of materials within each overlapping section.
18. The medical garment of claim 10 wherein the second and third front panels overlap each other for almost the entire width of each panel.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 11, 2011
Publication Date: Aug 16, 2012
Inventors: Neeru Shahani Hutton (Pleasanton, CA), Farida Mithaiwala (Aliso Viejo, CA), David Rogers (Burbank, CA)
Application Number: 13/025,158